It's Wales, not bloody Mars!
by CanonCannon
Summary: "I'm not trying to lead her on. The timing just hasn't been right." Harry muttered to the carpet, not wanting to look Ron or Hermione in the eyes. It was awkward enough talking about girls, especially when the girl in question is your best mate's sister. "What's timing?" Ron said, uncharacteristically profound. "You either love someone or you don't." Rated T to be safe.


**Just a cute Harry and Ginny one-shot from after the war. I haven't written any Hinny in the longest time and I've missed it dearly! They were my first OTP and most definitely still one of my favourites.**

 **I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!**

* * *

"For Merlin's sake, Mum," a disgruntled Ginny said from her perch on the tattered loveseat Bill and Fleur were sat on. "It's Wales, not bloody Mars."

Harry held back a laugh, but he couldn't stop a smirk creeping onto his face that did not go unnoticed by Hermione, who shot him a knowing look.

"I still think you're too young, Ginny." Mrs Weasley said. She was stood in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room, with her hands on her hips and a stern expression on her face. It was no secret that Mrs Weasley had been trying, and failing, to convince her daughter not to train for the Holyhead Harpies ever since Ginny had been scouted. But, since then Ginny had already been to try-outs and been offered a spot in the training camp.

"What your mother means to say is, _well done_." Mr Weasley chipped in, smiling at his wife and daughter. "We're proud of you."

"Of course we are!" Mrs Weasley cried, glaring at her husband as if he were suggesting she wasn't proud. "But that doesn't mean you need to move out! You're not even eighteen yet!"

"I'm of age!" Ginny protested. She had accidentally let slip a couple of days ago at Dinner that she was planning on moving in with Luna before training started, and to say Mrs Weasley took it badly would be an understatement. Over the course of forty-eight hours, she had tried everything to change her daughter's mind; shouting; glaring; guilt-tripping and full on begging. But Ginny was set on moving into the small flat with her best friend.

"Let's not start this again, you lot are doing my head in." Bill groaned, as Fleur nodded enthusiastically beside him before she stroked the side of his face with a soppy expression.

Harry caught Ginny's eye and they grinned at each other, something that they had been doing since the summer before Harry's sixth year whenever Fleur did practically anything.

Hermione jabbed Harry in his side at this interaction and he winced at the surprising sharpness of her left elbow.

"Oi! What was that for?" He asked incredulously, glaring at his best friend.

"Stop staring at Ginny! You can't keep ogling her when you're not together anymore." Hermione whispered harshly, though it didn't go unheard by Ron, who leaned over and nodded his head.

"She's right you know. Stop leading her on, mate." Ron said in a hushed voice, pointedly looking over at Ginny, as if it wasn't obvious enough who they were talking about.

After the war, it was difficult for Harry and Ginny. The main reason being that they were both mourning the loss of friends and family. The morning after the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry had stumbled wordlessly into the Great Hall and sleepily kissed Ginny in front of her entire family, before taking her aside and telling her everything that had happened. In turn she told him what had happened at Hogwarts, about the DA and the torture with the Carrows. After talking they both decided that they needed some time to grieve separately, and they'd be a couple again when the timing was better.

Harry's issue, however, was that timing was not one of his strengths. Several times in the summer before Ginny and Hermione went back to Hogwarts, he had given in to the temptation and kissed her, but after that vowed not to mess her around. It was quite easy not kissing her while she was away, even though Harry greatly anticipated her letters every week. He had almost convinced himself that he could resist her charms when she came back for Christmas, but after an intense five-a-side Quidditch match on Boxing day, he took one look at her, with those rosy-red cheeks and snow-streaked hair, and caved completely, giving her a festive snog in the broom shed. By Easter, he already knew he'd be helpless, so he just accepted it and when she pulled him into the pantry, he didn't even try to push her away.

He'd hoped, foolishly, that after she graduated Hogwarts, there would be the perfect window to ask her back out, given that he already knew he was helplessly in love with her. And stupidly, he hadn't anticipated that she would be scouted by more than one Quidditch League team, even though he knew that she would be more than capable of playing professionally.

The reason he hadn't asked her out before was because they would hardly see each other, and now, when he had been planning to ask her, she was about to go away for months on end to train in Wales.

He was beginning to wonder if the timing would ever be right, and a large part of him was worried that Ginny would find someone better and he'd lose his chance completely. The chance he still couldn't believe he got in the first place.

"I'm not trying to lead her on. The timing just hasn't been right." Harry muttered to the carpet, not wanting to look Ron or Hermione in the eyes. It was awkward enough talking about girls, especially when the girl in question is your best mate's sister.

"What's timing?" Ron said, uncharacteristically profound. "You either love someone or you don't."

Harry could feel his cheeks burning and tried to look anywhere that wasn't at Ginny. He couldn't think of a worse time for Ron to become thoughtful; he much preferred it when he had the emotional range of a teaspoon.

"I do love her," Harry admitted quietly. It was so quiet, that Ron and Hermione barely heard it over the noise and chatter of the living room. Harry refused to look at them though – he couldn't bear to see the smug looks on their faces.

At his confession, Ron and Hermione launched into various plans and ideas about how Harry could talk to Ginny. Hermione's plans were lavish to say the least, and though Harry was trying to block them out by putting his head in his hands, he was failing miserably, and the words "candles" and "potpourri" echoed in his mind. Ron's ideas were much more direct, and one of them was pretty much Harry just planting one on Ginny and asking her to be his girlfriend again there and then. Oddly enough, Harry didn't take to any of these suggestions.

"You know what?" Harry said, turning to face his friends. Hermione perked up at his words and Ron's eyebrows shot up into her hair. "I never thought I'd say this, but I actually preferred it when you two were snogging."

And with that he strode purposefully out of the living room, not noticing the pair of brown eyes that followed him. Ron's ears were a dangerous scarlet, and Hermione jumped when she heard the front door slam shut.

Harry had only gotten about halfway to the broom shed when he heard an all too familiar voice shout, "Oi!"

He stopped in his tracks and turned to face Ginny, who was a few metres behind him and looking as irresistible as ever.

She was smiling at him broadly, and the monster inside Harry's chest was going positively berserk. It took all he had not to gather her up in his arms and kiss her there and then. It was really becoming a problem.

"Ron looks pissed." Ginny said, half-laughing. She'd caught up to him now, and there was only a short space between them.

Harry opened his mouth to reply but as he looked over her head, he could see the Burrow's living room clearly, and in the window, was George, making some inappropriate hand gestures suggesting what it was that Harry wanted Ginny to do to him. Harry spluttered and looked up at the sky to try and get rid of the mental image George was stirring up.

Ginny looked behind her and flipped her finger up at George, before grabbing Harry's forearm and pulling him out of sight from the living room.

After a few moments of standing still staring at one another, Ginny let go of Harry's arm and crossed her arms over her chest. She turned her head to the side, and the warm yellow light from the kitchen window cast shadows in the valleys of her cheekbones and made her look even more gorgeous that she already was. Out of the oversized sleeve of Ginny's worn yellow T-Shirt, Harry could see freckles crawling up her pale arms and dotted teasingly across her collarbones that were just visible.

As she turned back to face him, he was distracted by how the light made her hair shimmer, and how it brought out the golden highlights. She had pulled it up into a ponytail during breakfast, an action which, in itself, caused Harry to accidentally put his elbow in the butter dish. During the day, it got looser and looser until Ginny was tired of tucking fly-away tendrils behind her ears, and tugged the hairband out. Now it hung in gorgeous waves of Gryffindor red and gold, however this didn't make Harry feel anywhere close to brave as they stood, inches away from each other, under the cool night sky.

"Timing has never been my best quality, Gin," Harry confessed, looking at her in such a way that he hoped she knew he was sorry. Perhaps he hadn't conveyed the right feeling across, because Ginny's eyebrows were knitted in confusion. "Every time I've wanted to get back together with you, it's just not been the right time for it."

Ginny was quiet for a moment, which was unusual for her. It was like she was working out what to say. Odd – because with her sharp wit, it would normally take her milliseconds to come out with a snarky response.

"Are you saying that we should move on?" She asked, in a scared, little voice that was so reminiscent of her first-year self that it worried Harry. "Are you saying that we should forget –"

"No!" Harry cut across her. "No, that's not what I'm trying to say, I–" And Harry trailed off, scratching the back of his neck whilst trying to muster up the right words to say. He looked across the hills that surrounded the Burrow, and it took him a few moments before he realised just who it was he was talking to.

This was Ginny, _his Ginny_.

Sure, she was probably the most beautiful girl Harry had set eyes on, and she was so funny she'd make you laugh until your sides hurt, and she was so charming that she could talk her way out of anything.

But she was also the girl that had fancied him for years before he realised how wonderful she was. She was the girl who had stood up for him countless times without him needing to ask, just because she liked him that much. She was the girl who understood him, and who kissed him under the willow tree by the Black Lake, with debris from the Final Battle in her hair and a cut lip, and whispered _I love you_.

"I want to be with you. _Now_. Regardless of the fact I might not see you for three months. The timing might never be perfect but that doesn't mean that it won't work." Harry said, a lot more confident than how he felt. And just as his façade was slipping, real confidence burst out, as Ginny's face spilt into a brilliant grin.

She draped her arms around his neck, and all Harry could see was her amber eyes sparkling in the lowlight, creased at the edges from her smile. As always, that smile of hers was infectious, and Harry couldn't stop himself from beaming back, as he wrapped his arms around her slender waist and pulled her closer to him, his eyes shutting. They stood with their foreheads touching for a while, not wanting to move out of the embrace.

But Ginny did. She pulled away slightly so she could look him right in the face. At the loss of contact, Harry's eyes fluttered open.

"You know, there will be visiting days," Ginny said playfully. "And I promise not to run off with any of the other teammates, despite how beautiful they might be." And then she chuckled, and Harry chuckled with her.

Maybe it was the gentle but blazing look on her face, or that her lips were slightly parted, or perhaps it was because Ginny's hands had been moving slowly over his chest since she put them there; whatever the answer was, Harry didn't care, because when he lowered his lips onto hers, he wondered why it had taken him so long to do so.

When he'd said that kissing Ginny was better than Firewhiskey, he was seriously misjudging how brilliant the sensation was. As he stood there kissing her, with one hand cupping the side of her face, and the other on the small of her back, he seriously couldn't think of anything that was better than kissing Ginny. If he could, he never wanted to stop kissing her, but after a substantial length of time, they broke apart, breathless and smiling.

"I love you, Weasley." Harry said quietly, his hands interlocking with hers. He hadn't gotten the chance to say it back since she told him over a year ago, since she had taken off almost straight away after saying it, and Harry had neither courage nor foresight to say it before now.

"Don't say it like that; it sounds like you're talking to my brother!" Ginny said mock-annoyed, but the smile on her face told otherwise. Harry chuckled.

"I love you, Ginny."

Even though Harry thought it impossible, Ginny's grin grew, and she grabbed the sides of his face and brought him down for a kiss, that didn't quite work out, as they were both smiling too hard.

"And I love you Harry." She replied. And it was the best thing Harry had heard since the last time she had told him.

"Be my girlfriend again?" Harry murmured, pulling her tight to him and kissing the side of her neck. "Please?"

Ginny took her time in moving her hands up to his face and then into his hair, before they came to rest around his neck. She looked into his eyes and sighed deeply.

"Only because you asked so nicely."

* * *

"Bloody hell, why do they have to be so sappy about it?" Ron grumbled he looked out of the kitchen window. George, Hermione and Charlie had joined him, with the other members of the family staying in the living room as to not invade Harry and Ginny's privacy. Hermione had held back initially, as she would hear about it from Ginny later, and besides, someone needed to stop the boys from ruining their moment.

"Shut it, Ronald." Hermione said good humouredly, swatting him with a nearby tea towel. "It's romantic."

George and Charlie didn't seem to agree, but they were keeping it quiet, and secretly, they had both wanted Ginny and Harry to get back together since they knew they broke up. It was no coincidence that Charlie had blackmailed Ginny into helping Harry clear away the brooms last Christmas, and George "accidentally" let slip that the pantry would be the perfect place for a snog with Ginny in hearing-distance.

"What are they saying?" Charlie asked, peering out the window and trying desperately to lip-read.

"I think he just said something about turnips?" George mused, squinting hard at the couple outside. "No, that can't be right, she's just said _Bowtruckle_ , and I can't see the link there…"

"Shh! They might hear us!" Hermione whispered, ducking down slightly when she saw Ginny move. She shot Ron a death glare when his hand brushed against a rouge gravy jug and nearly knocked it over. He caught it with a grimace at his girlfriend

"Blimey – they're kissing _again_? You'd think they'd get bored or something!" Charlie said, with a disgusted look on his face. "How exciting can sucking each other's faces be?"

"This better mean they're back together. I can't deal with their _pining_ any longer." Bill said, surprising them all with his entrance into the kitchen. The loud noise George made when he kicked the bin over in shock made the four brothers plus Hermione drop to the ground in hopes that Harry and Ginny wouldn't see them.

After a few minutes, Hermione poked her head back up and deemed the coast clear.

"I think they're back together this time." George said as Bill walked back into the living room.

"How can you tell?" Charlie asked, narrowing his eyes at Harry and Ginny to try and figure it out.

"It's the hands," Ron said, gesturing vaguely at the couple's clasped hands. "Last time they weren't holding hands. This means they're back together!"

And with much whooping and jeering, Ron, George and Charlie congaed out of the kitchen, with Hermione following suit, smiling fondly at the boys.

* * *

Harry tore his lips away from Ginny's at the sound of a male-sounding whoop.

" _What on earth_ –" He began, looking around wildly for the source of said whoop. Ginny, however, knew exactly where it came from, and was glaring daggers at the kitchen window.

"Ten galleons that my git brothers were watching," She muttered darkly, before looking at Harry and having her expression soften considerably. He squeezed her hand.

"Maybe this means that I won't have to awkwardly tell your family we're dating again?" Harry tried hopefully. Ginny threw her head back and gave a short laugh.

"No chance," She said. "They'll pretend they know nothing until you admit it. Knowing my brothers, they'll take bizarre pleasure in watching you squirm."

"It was worth a shot." Harry said, cracking a smile.

Ginny smiled back, happier than she had been in a long time, and kissed him quickly when he dipped his head down to her level, and then, hand-in-hand, they walked back up to the Burrow.

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 **That's it! It's long, I know. I honestly hadn't intended it to be so long, but I got a bit carried away writing it and I didn't want to cut any of it out. Story of my life.**

 **Please Review it! It's so helpful to hear feedback and so wonderful to know that someone has read your little creation and has comments on it.**

 **Also, I know everyone has different opinions on how Harry and Ginny got back together after the war. Personally I think this would be roughly what happened, since Harry's a noble git and we all know how long it took for him to kiss her in the first place. With all the guilt from the War I find it hard to believe that Harry would've jumped Ginny the first chance he gets after her brother has just died. Let me know how you think Hinny reunited!**

 **(Side note: I was thinking of writing some of the Hinny moments mentioned here - like their talk after the Final Battle or some of the kisses mentioned. Would anyone be interested in that? If so let me know!)**


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